Betwixt, between

In his leader “Unmoved by invisible hands” (23 November), John Gill discusses Lord Willetts’ views on the market and UK higher education. However, the trouble is that we have neither a genuine state scheme nor a truly free market.

With the former, academics would just have to play by some rules and would hang on to their employment conditions such as a decent pension.

In the case of the latter, the government would keep its nose out of matters such as “quality” and “employability”; students would vote with their fee, and the problem of a sector that has become large, bureaucratic and unwieldy would be solved by closures and mergers.